CAREER AWAY FROM TRACK

Multiple national record holder Goh focusing on her sports law practice

- Kimberly Kwek Sports Correspondent

Singapore distance runner Goh Chui Ling competed at six editions of the biennial SEA Games, claiming a silver and four bronzes in total.

(ST PHOTO: LIM YAOHUI)

Just over a week ago, distance runner Goh Chui Ling found herself in Bangkok alongside many Singapore athletes who were in the Thai capital for the SEA Games.

This time, however, the 33-year-old was not clad in Team Singapore colours or spikes. Instead, she had traded her competition gear for business attire, attending the Sports Arbitration Regional Seminar by the Olympic Council of Asia, where she was a speaker.

Still deeply involved in sport, the multiple national record holder made the difficult decision in 2025 to step away from competition to focus on her legal career.

The sports lawyer said: “It was a natural fading away because of work and I couldn't give Singapore Athletics an answer on whether I wanted to do the SEA Games, until the last day or so.

“It’s been about 18 years of my life, I couldn’t confront the fact that this is perhaps an end of an era, but hopefully not for nothing.”

Goh, who racked up a silver and four bronzes in six SEA Games appearances, once held national marks in at least six individual events - the women’s 800m, 1,500m, 3,000m, 5,000m, 5km (road) and 10km (road) - at the same time.

Setting the 10km (road) mark in Switzerland in 2021 ranks as one of her career highlights as it was her first distance national mark.